What IP is subject to license?
A. The licensing obligation under the IP Policy is limited only to “Necessary” patent rights. What may be “necessary” is intended to mean only those patent rights which a Participant might own, and which are fundamental to a Specification – i.e. there is no way that a Specification might be practiced without infringing the patent rights owned by a Participant. These necessary claims are usually referred to as “shall” requirements in a Specification. More specifically, the patent rights comprise present, pending or hereafter acquired patent claims that would be necessarily infringed by implementing the subject Specification. Hence, a claim is necessary only when it is not possible to avoid infringement because there is no non-infringing alternative for implementing the Specification.
